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I’m having quite the crazy food adventure in Cambodia, and thus when the time arrived and I was presented with fried frogs, I jumped at the chance.

Generally speaking I have found Khmer cuisine to be a lot better than I had expected, or indeed remembered. You can read about my top Cambodian dishes here.

But, being the Street Food Guy I have also done my best to try as much weird Cambodian food as possible. Last week was the turn of “dude” bugs, and this week I was to get my frog jollies.

The tale went as thus. My Khmer friend told me that it was frog season, and did I want to try fried frog? I said “why not”, as is the standard from me, and explained I had already tried frogs with tamarind in Phnom Penh. Said Khmer friend laughed and explained this was “different”, they were not wrong.

The common frog used for said Khmer delicacy come from the rice fields, where legend has it they are easy to catch as when you shine a light in their eyes they freeze. Voila easily farmed frogs!

Now, if you have spent time in Asia, or indeed France you will have noticed frogs-legs, and indeed almost whole frogs on menus. These are flavored and meaty, but these tiny rice paddy frogs are consumed in a rather unique way.

Basically the whole frog is either deep fried, and grilled to a charred state of affairs, before being served en-masse and in large quantities. You then eat the frog whole, yep head, legs, and everything in between.

How does fried whole frog taste?

Well, a lot less bad than I had expected to be fair! Crunchy, a bit salty, but with no amazing flavor to blow you away.

I can imagine it, and indeed it is usually consumed with a hefty helping of beer as a drinking snack. At the very least I can say it tasted much better than Cambodian worms…..

Love defines a wide range of positive and strong psychological and emotional states, from anesthetized love, the highest personal intuition, to the easiest greatest human desire. People fall into love for many different reasons, ranging from a long-lasting friendship to a sudden spark. No matter what the reason, falling in love seems to involve a number of positive mental and emotional states. Many people experience feelings of happiness, health, and contentment when falling in love, but there are also those who experience sadness, anxiety, fear and even pain.

The most important question to ask yourself when you begin to fall head over heels in love is this: “Ares this love?” Does the idea of being loved fill you with joy? Do you wish you were loved? When we ask ourselves these questions we usually get a clear answer. We recognize that the relationship is worth investing our time into. We may be just starting out in a relationship, so it’s crucial that we ask ourselves if we really want to be in love.

There are, however, five love languages and an even more general list of ways we feel when we’re loved. These can be broken down into emotional responses. Feeling loved is often experienced through our emotions; you might be feeling great when you first meet your partner, but then your feelings may change once you hold them in your arms and kiss them good night. You may feel great the first time you hold your partner after they’ve broken up with you, but then you might get butterflies when you hold them and kiss them. Other reactions include anger, frustration, jealousy, and even acceptance. While all these emotions and reactions may fall under one umbrella, they are still individual experiences.

When you ask yourself, how do you feel when you are loved you must also consider your physical responses. Can you feel the love when you receive physical contact from your partner? Does receiving physical touch mean as much to you as it does to others? How does it feel to receive physical touch from your partner? Sometimes people confuse physical touch and sexual touching, but when you are experiencing love you are not being sexually stimulated or wanting to experience sex, you are simply enjoying the special attention that your partner has provided.

One way to experience all the different love languages is to receive love in the form of romance. Romance is different for everyone, but it involves receiving gifts from your partner, being special in their eyes, and being invited out to dinner or to places where you can just sit and talk. Receiving romance from your partner may take some time, but if you’re not careful you can definitely begin to experience all of the love languages. Just remember that love languages are not similar; each language refers to a different experience. If you want to give your partner a romantic attention you should start with the physical love language. If you want to go out and just be alone, start with the emotional love language.

Lastly, asking yourself, “How do you feel when you are loved?” Is more than likely, you will receive love in the form of attention, romance, and even gift giving. If you ever ask yourself, “How do you feel when you are loved?” you should immediately begin to experience all the different love languages, but you need to be careful not to get too far ahead of yourself.

Even in the most ardent of ultra-left-wing circles, you will be hard-pressed to find someone willing to fight the corner of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Hitler, Stalin, hell even Enver Hoxha still have their adherents, but when it comes to the Killing Fields, they appear one step too far even for apologists.

But, the internets a fucking weird place and people are a weird old bunch, so we went exploring to see if there were any Nuevo Khmer Rouge out there.

We were not to be disappointed! While there were no stand out groups like the Stalin Society, we were happy to see at least some loons out there.

 

Finally last, but least the Khmer Rouge themselves. Whilst officially disbanded in 1998 in actuality, the remnants of the Khmer Rouge were given Anlong Veng and Pailin “provinces” as their playthings. Nowadays, both are populated by Khmer Rouge leaders and their descendants. Anlong Veng, in particular is populated by families of the last leaders of the Khmer Rouge as well as plaques and tourist sites linked to the former regime. In some ways, it feels almost as if they never left!

The USA

It is amazing how the US has recreated history over its relations with the Khmer Rouge, but that is exactly what they have done. On the face of things, they have supported the war crimes tribunal, but in effect have been denying there long association with the Khmer Rouge as part of their cold war battle with the USSR and Vietnam. If you need a contemporary comparison, look at the “moderate opposition” in Syria. Even China has since said sorry….

And those are the current supporters of the Khmer Rouge in 2020, they might be few, but they are still important when it comes to understanding the legacy of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Most importantly, they paint a very interesting picture when looking at modern politics and our interventions in other countries.

The Khmer National Solidarity Party was formed by Khieu Samphan following his defection from the Khmer Rouge.

Following the fall  of the Khmer Rouge and the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the new Vietnamese backed government reclaimed the history of the CPK and morphed into the Kampuchean Peoples Revolutionary Party.

The Khmer Rouge morphed into the Party of Democratic Kampuchea which officially at least renounced communism in favor democratic socialism. It was initially led by Pol Pot, but in 1985 Khieu Samphan became General-Secretary of the Party.

Considered a relative liberal (by the standards of the time) Khieu Samphan, had served in both the governments of King Sihanouk, as well as Democratic Kampuchea.

He led Party of Democratic Kampuchea as well as being part of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea .

In 1992 the Party of Democratic Kampuchea morphed into the Cambodian National Unity Party, with even vaguer goals and again with Khieu Samphan as their leader. The initial aim was to take part in the UN sponsored elections, which the Khmer Rouge refused to do, thus keeping the civil war going. It is estimated at the time that around 6% of Cambodian territory, including Pailin and Anlong Veng were still under KR control.

Following the defection of Ieng Sary in 1996 to form the Democratic National Union Party, Khieu stayed in charge for one more year, before also defecting.

Khieu formed the Khmer National Solidary Party, which initially planned to join the forces in opposition to the Cambodian Peoples Party, going so far as to state “If the elections do not go ahead under the iron rule of Vietnamese communists and their puppet, we should be very happy and want to take part because we are democratic, pluralistic and free government.”.

The CPP objected to this and for all intents the Khmer National Solidarity Party ceased to exist in any form of importance.

In 2018 Khieu Samphan was sentenced to life in prison and he is one of the most senior Khmer Rouge leaders still alive.